Clean Water Act My A$$:The Ten Most Polluted Waterways of The U.S.

The towboat, Donna York, pushing barges of coal up the Ohio river. The tow had just exited the Portland canal at Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s a disturbing yet unsurprising article from Mother Jones naming the ten most polluted waterways in the country. The Ohio River, the river in which I live not even a mile away from, sits firmly entrenched on that list. The article includes a link to a report from the Environment America Research and Policy Center, which states that industry dumped 226 million pounds of toxic chemicals into our rivers and streams in 2010. This is actually an improvement from their previous study conducted from 2007. For some reason, that doesn’t make me feel any better. I can’t imagine why not.

In addition, the article states that “Within the overall waste, the researchers identified 1.5 million pounds of carcinogens, 626,000 pounds of chemicals linked to developmental disorders and 354,000 pounds of those associated with reproductive problems.” The main offenders ( the top 20 are listed in the article) are mainly steel manufacturers, chemical plants, and food processors.

While most of these waterways are ostensibly by the Clean Water Act, the fact of the matter is that these toxic chemicals released into our water supply are actually legal, and the offenders are not required to make public what or how much they are dumping. Even more outrageous is that another 60% of our rivers, streams, canals and lakes are not even covered by the Clean Water Act.

Capitalism kills my friends, Capitalism kills. Our environment is not so living proof of that.

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